8 Seconds To Score
I noticed this post in email Insider regarding effective marketing emails.
Here’s the kernel:
"Studies show that subscribers will spend just eight seconds on most messages before clicking through or navigating away. Your emails will drive the most dollars if you take on the eight-second challenge and use that time (or even better, less time than that!) to answer your subscribers’ three biggest questions definitively, ideally in the preview pane:
1. What is this email about?
2. Why should a subscriber care about it?
3. What should a subscriber do about it?"
Eight seconds to score.
Look critically at a few of your recent fundraising emails and action alerts. Can they meet that test?
Tom
2 responses to “8 Seconds To Score”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Thanks so much for raising this. Yes, capturing donor information can be helpful for stewardship like newsletters, thank-you letters, impact updates. But how you ask matters. Forcing full data capture introduces friction that can significantly depress conversion, many donors may simply abandon the process. Beyond the friction itself, required fields also shift the emotional experience […]
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Unlike holidays that everyone already knows, Giving Tuesday is a created event. Many donors recognize the name but not the exact timing, so referencing it becomes a helpful cue. It serves as a reminder and taps into social norm activation (“everyone’s giving today”), which boosts response. However, we still want it paired with the mission, […]
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When a subject line leads with the match (“Your gift matched!”), it risks triggering market-norm thinking: the sense that giving is a financial transaction rather than an act rooted in values, identity, and care. This shift reduces intrinsic motivation and, over time, can weaken donor satisfaction and long-term engagement. It also makes the email indistinguishable […]
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There’s no evidence that QR codes suppress mid-value giving; all available research suggests they either help or have no negative effect. In fact, behavioral and usability research consistently shows the opposite: reducing friction at any point in the donation process increases completion rates and total response. And that has nothing to do with capacity and […]
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What you’re experiencing is very common. Resistance often isn’t about capability, but about motivation quality. If board members feel pushed into fundraising, that triggers controlled motivation (low quality motivation) i.e. obligation, guilt, or fear of judgment, which often results in avoidance. Instead, we need to create conditions for volitional motivation (high quality motivation) by satisfying […]
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That’s a really thoughtful question, and you’re not the first to raise it. Many of our clients have been cautious about placing the ask at the very end. To address their concern, we’ve tested both approaches, and the results are clear: when the ask comes last, even if that means it appears on the second […]
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Is effective nonprofit email marketing about “fundraising emails,” or is effective email marketing about establishing relationships with your donors/potential donors – truly engaging them in your mission?
Success is measurable, believe it or not. A marketing message needs 3 three components to increase it’s likeliness of success. Warning!!!! Creative thinking required!!!
Take the test to where it counts. Answer these three questions.
1. What is meaningful and unique about this email?
2. What is the overt benefit to the subscriber?
3. What is the promise and proof if they take action?
If you can you provide meaningful and unique, overt benefit, promise and proof then the chances of success double.